Female Leadership

Renew the notion of true leadership through personal development (for men and women)

Impression of a presentation of Karin Jironet, author of Female Leadership and many other books, Senior Program Director, trainer and coach at De Baak, Theologian and Jungian Psychoanalyst. k.jironet@debaak.nl

By Petra Baars

The old way of leadership is very safeguarded by persons (mostly men) who want to remain their power positions. They don’t want change. But in all the past times beyond old structures arise new ones that force innovation and creativity into the world. Mostly started by people who did not fit into the dominant culture.

Through social media and globalization change is again taking place. The notion of one person at the top who is able to cause change diminishes. The crowds get more power through their relations in social networks and the speed and range in which they can communicate. A leader who 'knows about results' becomes more old fashion nowadays, the new leader is good in dealing with people, and respects their values.

Female Leadership Dealing with complexity is one of the aspects of these times. For example, leading people with different communication styles. You must look further then linear. This is all typical female leadership style, which can of course also be conducted by men. But women have a natural attitude for it. It is about relationships with quality and using intuition to adept quickly and move on.

What does really matter? Going fast can also mean becoming reckless. To avoid that, women and men need to know who they are, what they want, and how they can get it. That research within yourself takes some time. There is a tendency though, that a lot of people above their 40-ties don’t want to keep up anymore with the company policy but start searching for the ethical thing to do, that what really matters in the world.

Change yourself Changing yourself in relation to others is not so easy. It takes a lot of effort. Looking at your unwanted feelings that you love to skip over, and which you don’t want to change. In the middle part of Dante, you find the seven sins and virtues that are a handsome vehicle to learn about yourself. Then you can change to deeper becoming yourself, and let others also be themselves. So, how do you deal with pride and humility, envy and generosity, anger and gentleness, greed and charity and so forth? Just think about a moment that you decided to change your self, and initiated a change in your company by doing so. That is the first step…